I wrote about our tire purchase in one of the forums a while ago. I'll put a brief version of the story here as well.

From reading the Good Sam forums and the FMCA forums, I learned about the Michelin Advantage tire discount program through FMCA. One of the other FMCA members from Maine posted about the savings he got. I sent him a PM and found out which dealer he used.

Grandma is a great believer in comparison shopping, so she called around. Sure enough, the best deal to be had on Michelin XRV tires was through the FMCA program. That was the lure that caused me to join FMCA. It only cost $50 to join and we saved $120 per tire (x 6 = $720), compared to what the same dealer first quoted.

The dealer said he had 6 tires in stock. From the forums, I knew enough to ask about the date codes. At first, he said they were a year old and that they had been ordered for a customer who backed out. To compensate for being a year old, the dealer was going to match the FMCA price and throw in free mounting and balancing. I said I would take that deal. However, the dealer called back and said they rechecked and had only 5 of the year-old tires in the warehouse and had one that was 4 years old. I said I did not want a 4 year old tire. We wound up ordering a new set. That caused almost a two-week delay in getting ready to travel, but the date codes on the tires were only 3 months old when I got them.

We had a minor hickup because the dealer didn't fill out the paperwork completely at first. We got that straightened out, and I was charged the amount promised.

Thanks, FMCA, for the great tire discount program! I recommend that anyone needing tires for their coach look into it.